It was a realty blitz that took the city by storm. But the euphoria has not translated into bookings. Pick-up for all the three major players, Parsvnath, Emaar MGF and Uppal’s, which have already started bookings for their housing projects, has been slow and they still have to reach the 60 per cent bookings benchmark for a project launch to be labeled a success. Pride Asia, a joint venture between Parsvnath and the Chandigarh Housing Board, which had initially offered 359 units out of a total of 1314 as a limited period offer, has now launched its Scheme 2 wherein bookings for its remaining over 1000 units (one/two/three/four/five bedroom apartments, penthouses/villas) will be open from the 5th to 25th of each month after which allotments will be decided by a draw of lots.
However, the steep pricing (over Rs 52 lakh for one bedroom and Rs 1 crore for two bedroom apartments, Rs 4 crore for penthouses and over Rs 6 crore for villas) has made it difficult for the project to get buyers. Especially, when independent plots are available at less than half the price nearby (a 500 square yard plot can be bought for anything between Rs 1.6 to Rs 2 crore in nearby Mansa Devi area of Panchkula).
“The response so far is okay but we are hopeful of better response in the months to come,” says PK Jain, advisor, Parsvnath Developers Limited.
The booking figures of Uppal’s Marble Arch in Manimajra area of Chandigarh , the first to bring the concept of luxury living to the city and Mohali-based Emaar MGF have also not reached the 60 per cent mark.
“In the case of Emaar-MGF, it is its villas that are getting a good response,” says Inderjeet Gill of Home-n-home property consultancy firm. They are cheaper than both Parsvnath and Uppal’s (owing to low cost of land and remote location), and Punjabis have a fixation for plots and not apartments, he adds.
The response to Uppal’s has not only been hit by its limited space but the fact that its front will offer a view of showrooms in the time to come and its rear, the glimpse of villages nearby, says Mangat Rai of property consultant firm Subhash Mangat and Sons.
But should the low pick-up sound alarm bells for many more big projects such as TDI, Unitech, Pearls City, Ansals and Tata Housing lined up for the coming year?
“Going by this week’s auction of residential-commercial plots in Chandigarh , the realty boom is here to stay,” avers Brig Inderjeet, adding that distance will lose relevance in the times to come. “The coming of international airport, more IT professionals, the growing clout of the city as education and employment hub and its growing affluence are reasons enough for not writing off the group housing trend,” he says.
“The low response could also be due to the present stagnation in city’s realty market. The hardening of interest rates on housing loans and the controversy on cancellation of NoCs and CLUs of housing projects saw distress selling by buyers in Zirakpur, Dera Bassi and Kharar. But about 1.5 times hike is expected in these new townships in the coming year,” says Mangat Rai of property consultant firm, Subhash Mangat and Sons.